Even with increasing client-based software applications and tools, there remains an interaction and access gap between client computing devices being used by users (e.g., end-users, software developers, etc.) and resources (e.g., metadata) generally available at server computer devices. For example, in conventional systems, users have to go through a cumbersome process of manually sorting through various supporting and development documents to have access to metadata (such as structural metadata to describe whole or part of data structures, such as tables, rows, columns, indexes, etc., descriptive metadata to provide additional descriptive information relating to data structures, such as who created the table and when, etc.) relating to data being used by the users to perform various tasks. Such exercises require a great deal of manual work and are time-consuming, resource-consuming, and error-prone. To avoid this manual work, in some cases, the metadata is guessed and in other cases, it is partially or completely ignored.
The subject matter discussed in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in the background section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the background section or associated with the subject matter of the background section should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter in the background section merely represents different approaches.
In conventional database systems, users access their data resources in one logical database. A user of such a conventional system typically retrieves data from and stores data on the system using the user's own systems. A user system might remotely access one of a plurality of server systems that might in turn access the database system. Data retrieval from the system might include the issuance of a query from the user system to the database system. The database system might process the request for information received in the query and send to the user system information relevant to the request. The secure and efficient retrieval of accurate information and subsequent delivery of this information to the user system has been and continues to be a goal of administrators of database systems. Unfortunately, conventional database approaches are associated with various limitations.